Melting sea ice makes polar bears starve, drown

Chagrin and Bear It

Travel agents hawking trips to the Arctic have been boasting lately of an increased likelihood that tourists will see polar bears -- because starving bears are encroaching on human settlements to scavenge for food. Polar bears have traditionally used ice floes to hunt seals, their favored prey -- but Arctic ice, in case you hadn't heard, is melting. According to new research in the journal Arctic, the spring hunting season for polar bears has been reduced by nearly three weeks in some places, causing female bears to gain up to 175 pounds less than normal. Far from enjoying their slender physiques, the skinny bears are more susceptible to disease and have diminished reproductive capabilities, and their cubs are less likely to survive. In 1980, the average weight of an adult female polar bear in western Hudson Bay was 650 pounds; in 2004, it was 507 pounds. The Arctic study warns that the risk posed to polar bears by global warming is potentially irreversible. How's that for a Monday downer?

straight to the source: Terra Daily, 15 Sep 2006

straight to the source: Discovery News, Larry O'Hanlon, 13 Sep 2006

straight to the source: The Scotsman, Reuters, Alister Doyle, 15 Sep 2006

straight to the source: The Independent, Cahal Milmo, 15 Sep 2006

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Comments: (2 comments)

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new sharks!

The polar bear story fits into a pattern that we are becoming familiar with, regarding the melting of Arctic ice.

But the marine biodiversity story, from waters off western New Guinea, is really exciting.

The new "walking shark," which pushes along the ocean floor on its pectoral fins, first the left, next the right, is a truly beautiful beast.

But no, it is quite undesirable, and would be irresponsible, for anyone to get a salt-water aquarium in order to preserve any of these marvelous critters as their personal captives.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 3:38 PM on 18 Sep 2006

Yes, but..

Caniscandida,

The waters off the Bird's Head Peninsula of West Papua and the Raja Empat islands are truly exciting.

And you're right, the so-called 'walking shark' depicted in the photograph accompanying the BBC and Washington Post stories is a truly beautiful creature as well.

But the shark in the photo is not the new species. Hemiscyllium freycineti, AKA the Raja Epaulette - the ID is helpfully placed right in the photo caption - was actually first discovered in 1824. It's endemic in West Papua region, and it is endangered - it's on the IUCN Red List. See here .

(You know how some journalists are - "Hey, isn't a photo of one epaulette shark just as good as another." And in the greater scheme of things, of course, this may be quite correct.)

The box drawn on the map provided with the BBC story actually shows just the Raja Empat(which means Four Kings) area. R4 consists of four large islands (and many smaller ones) west of the Birdshead Peninsula of West Papua (formerly Irian Jaya). If I'm not mistaken, however, the new epaulette shark and the other new discoveries that are the main subject of this story were actually discovered during a recent CI Rapid Environmental Assessment mission to the Teluk Cendrawasih area, which is northeast of the Birds Head Peninsula.

The MSNBC item, on the other hand, does has a video of the unnamed new shark. It looks a lot like a common H. ocellatum, but its "walking" behavior (shown on the clip) is very odd indeed.

The MSNBC item also includes an excellent, accurate map.

These waters off West Papua, along with a few other locations in East Indonesia, have become the most interesting spots on the planet for me. I'm headed back over October-November.

From a conservationist point of view, it's not just the fact that this area is the global epicentre of marine biodiversity (actually we're talking about the larger Indo-Pacific Coral Triangle as a whole here, not just the waters of West Papua), but the fact that this area may be the the most important evolutionary centre of origin for marine genera and species - where new forms of marine life first step onto the evolutionary stage to radiate outward through oceans all over the world.

Robert Delfs

by Robert Delfs at 8:36 PM on 18 Sep 2006

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